History of Beauty

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  “Let us go finish with the human King. We have plans to make. Plans to shape the future. One hundred years from now, we decide what life for the Cubi people will be like. We plan that now, and we set that plan in motion tonight.”

  Randr looked overwhelmed. Then he smiled genuinely. “Yes, My King.”

  Nil-Savadin and Nol-Plydon stood outside and talked when Elakdon and Randr returned to King Harald’s home.

  “I was about to send out a Guard or two to look for you,” Nol-Plydon said.

  “I spoke to Odin. Actually, he spoke to me. He reminded me of something I had to contemplate, and now would be the best time to know those answers.”

  “Answers to what, young Nol?” Nol-Plydon asked, smiling optimistically.

  “Where do I see my Kingdom in one hundred years? Which geographical and social aspects promote or hinder my people from not only feeding but living structured enough for the older Cubi to be able to strengthen the younger? And where do I see my people in one hundred years?”

  Nil-Savadin smiled proudly but also looking a little touched.

  Nol-Plydon’s brows rose before he theatrically turned to look at Nil-Savadin.

  She shrugged. “They were such good questions, I thought I would keep the tradition going.”

  “Considering who first asked them to me, I agree.” The old King turned back to Elakdon. “And what answers have come to mind?”

  “We will not hide forever,” Elakdon said, walking up the steps to stand with them and thus not easily be overheard by anyone. “But I see a Kingdom rich in numbers, rich in cultural history, rich in honor, and rich in truth.”

  “Admirable points to pursue,” Nol-Plydon said, nodding. “But not hiding forever means you will hide now?”

  “We cannot grow numbers if not for peace to do so.”

  “True,” Nil-Savadin said, nodding to herself.

  “The aspects that hinder this are the new God, our small numbers, and a structural system that will now crumble as we are to hide. A new system must be set in place, and it will be in the crown of Yggdrasil.”

  Nol-Plydon looked puzzled.

  “I shall show you at home in my Hall. I have a carving there that will show you what I mean. It will become a hierarchy in a hierarchy. The hierarchy also working as communication lines.”

  “I see. I would like to share with you how my Kingdom works so we may all let ourselves inspire from what is set in motion now.”

  “And the last question?” Nil-Savadin asked.

  Elakdon looked at Randr. “I can’t see that far because I can’t grasp a hundred years. I’m too young.”

  “Then see them happy and in times of peace, and leave the how out for now,” Nol-Plydon said.

  Elakdon nodded, thinking that it would have to do.

  “Now, let us secure us numbers.” Nol-Plydon swept out his arm to motion for them to follow him inside. As they took their seat around the table, Father and Harald joined minutes later for the next round.

  Elakdon felt more hopeful, and even though he found hiding to be degrading, he began to see hidden opportunities.

  “If the Cubi people is to hide, we need humans to hide with us,” Nol-Plydon said.

  “Then take the ones you have,” Harald said.

  “No, you don’t understand,” Nol-Plydon said. “We need more, and we need more all the time. Or did you think we would stop having children? When we find one who turns out to be a hidden son or daughter, revealed by tasting our magic, that Cubus will need more than one to feed him or her the first many years if the human is not to be harmed.”

  “I cannot let you take thralls indiscriminately.”

  “Not thralls, freemen,” Elakdon said. “Even our thralls have been treated better than in most freeman homes because we need them happier in order to feed on them.”

  That seemed to surprise Harald. “So what do you suggest?”

  “That we go find those we need and take them with us to where we are to hide for you to keep your peace.”

  “I can’t just let you steal my people.”

  “And we can’t just let you hide us and forget about us, again, and thus starve us,” Elakdon said.

  That brought anger forth on the human King’s face.

  “But we do not hoard. We need to feed them, too.” Nol-Plydon said. “Humans to us are a richness like many horses are to you. But if you are low on food, you cannot feed them.”

  “Your villages have always been thriving, I hear.”

  “Before we had to hide, yes,” Father said. “Our secrecy will prevent us from trading the way we usually do. You limit us, so we will need provided what we are limited to get for ourselves.”

  Harald’s jaw worked as he thought.

  “We will need a continuing cooperation with humans to trade,” Elakdon said. “We will each collect a group of people we trust in mediating between the two of us to take care of all affairs needed between our Kingdoms to ensure we both thrive as we pull back and leave you the only one out in the open.”

  Elakdon chose his words like that because Harald had to understand that being out in the open made him vulnerable, too. He already knew that, which was probably why he kept asking for purple-eye assistance, yet so far, he’d struck out.

  “How many will you need?”

  “That depends on many factors, but we will at all times need at least one per Cubus,” Father said.

  “How many are you?” Harald asked.

  “With the rise of a new Nol comes a new count,” Nol-Plydon said. “But I think you and Elakdon should continue working on his idea of each gathering a group to work out the practical stuff once the terms have been agreed upon.”

  Elakdon wasn’t optimistic about a group of the human King’s men to work as intermediates with the Cubi people simply because the priest in the background kept looking at them with such despise.

  Again, the bile rose in the back of Elakdon’s throat, and he felt increasingly angry at what he had to agree to. But it was that or war. Yet, he felt cornered.

  Not forever. He kept reminding himself about that. He wasn’t going to hide his people forever.

  “Nol! I’m sorry to interrupt, but Foldon is in dire need now,” Styrk said.

  “Excuse me a moment.” Elakdon left his seat and followed to where Foldon was sucking off the thrall boy he’d taken to bed for the night earlier. “Is he open for you?”

  “Yes, we prepared as much as we could to not keep you from your meeting.”

  Elakdon nodded, thankful he had Styrk to help with his hungry House Brother. Elakdon climbed onto the bed, pushed Foldon over, and sucked his cock into his mouth. Foldon groaned and spread his legs, never letting go of the cock in his own mouth. Elakdon released the first dose, teasing it into the urethra, and Foldon quaked from need, whimpering. He then released the member, climbed up, and released the rest of what his oral glands had in them.

  Foldon was not happy about that, yet once Styrk began humping him, he calmed down a bit and got his thrall boy into position to help sandwich him between the thrall and Styrk.

  Elakdon left the enclosure again, finding Nil-Savadin waiting.

  “Nil?”

  She smiled and took his hand. “I was just wondering. Did you forget that whatever is agreed upon here today, because it is of such monumental change to your society, we will do the same?”

  Elakdon turned to face her. “You will go into hiding, too?”

  “Yes. My Kingdom, in particular, is also in trouble with this new God. Nol-Plydon will follow you and I, and I do see how your pride struggles with not fighting for your people. But we have already lost in my Kingdom. We are already pulling back to hide many places.”

  Seeing the pain in her eyes made Elakdon feel selfish. He had forgotten. He was so young and new at this that he hadn’t been able to see the struggles outside his limited view. Or knowledge, for that matter.

  Elakdon nodded. “It pains me, yes, but I do see the need. I will, however, still nourish t
he hope of one day seeing us live side by side with humans again. Out, free, in the open, respected again.”

  She smiled and cupped his face. “Then you know where to lead your people. I hope we can one day stand like we do now and think back to this day, but that day we will be negotiating our return to a society that will hold us all again.”

  With a heavy heart, Elakdon returned to the table, the image of Yggdrasil playing in the back of his head.

  “I will need nine very large areas to be mine. I will need freemen and woman to occupy the fringes of my land, and I need them to know about us as they will be the intermediates. These free men and women must be trusted by the Earls of those areas, and the Earls will know of us and trade directly with the High Father or Mother of that area. Of the nine areas, one will be located close to Trygve and my birth town, Ladby. I will want one close to here, too, and two in Jutland. Four in all will be in our joint Kingdom. The last five will be spread north. If you are not already on speaking terms with those who rule those lands, we can go together, or you can go alone and secure me what you need for me to hide.”

  “Wait a minute!” Harald said.

  “You need us to hide, not the other way around,” Elakdon said. “For this, five of my Guards will travel with you, and we will be your ally in war, should our shared Kingdom be attacked unprovoked. Any war related to your God will not be fought by us. If we are invaded by people of your God, we will take them prisoner and keep them.”

  Father stared at Elakdon as if he had never met him before. He’d had that look on his face a few times now, and it was always when Elakdon took the lead.

  Elakdon noticed how calm he felt when doing so. It was a similar calm to when he sat with Randr, and no one spoke.

  “There must be a trade,” Harald said.

  “How so?” Elakdon asked, then remembered what Randr had said. A wife.

  “A marriage or a child.” Harald stood and waved someone over. A woman, not beautiful and not completely below Cubi standards, came over. She looked to be in her early thirties. “This is my cousin. She will marry you.”

  “I can’t because I am Royal. I could never be with her. Her body would poison me.”

  Father stood. “As the right hand to My King, and a normal Incubus, I can, and I will.”

  “And in return?”

  “Do you think a Succubus living with you would be able to feed, considering how her sex will brand her in the eyes of your new God?” Elakdon asked.

  “An Incubus would be easier, yes.”

  “How so? He will need to feed on women who aren’t allowed to be touched.”

  “No matter what God says about sex, then we are human with human needs. An Incubus that feeds on men will be able to feed, yet he must then marry a human woman.”

  Elakdon sat back, hating the idea. “He must be visited or visit us at every turn of the moon. He needs to be with one of us at least once every turn of the moon.”

  “Then I shall receive news from my cousin every time he visits your people. I will enjoy that.”

  “Spread the word,” Father said.

  Elakdon looked at the cousin of the King, and she stood tall and proud, her fingers wrapped around a cross with their dying god on it. He didn’t understand how that could translate to the love Harald had tried to explain to them. Her gaze kept going to Father, yet Father didn’t look at her. He looked…like he’d been sacrificed for no reason and no honor to the gods.

  “Father, you don’t have to,” Elakdon whispered in Cubi.

  “Yes, I do. And maybe it won’t be so bad.” Father smiled unconvincingly, yet Elakdon appreciated the attempt.

  “I shall stay with the human King for you, Nol.”

  Elakdon looked up, finding a dark blue-eye. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I will marry the human he needs me to, and I will…have myself a little harem of men.”

  “Harem? What’s that?”

  Nil-Savadin chuckled. “He will be fed well if that is the case.” She looked at Harald. “He will need at least four willing men to be around him at all time.”

  “What if I find a Changeling?” the blue-eye whispered.

  “Send word immediately,” Father said. “We will have them collected and dosed.”

  Harald sat back, not looking happy. Elakdon expected that expression to be mirrored on all their faces. “The four places you ask for will be given. How long will it take for you to build and move?”

  “Father? What do you think?” Elakdon asked.

  “I think we shall build them all at once.”

  “I will fortify the borders to the south to at least give you time if this meets resistance in any way,” Harald said.

  Father and Nol-Plydon exchanged glances as if something they’d talked about was confirmed.

  “As soon as the ground thaws, we shall build,” Nol-Plydon said. “It will take us no less than three, and no more than six months to finish the first four structures. The new God is spreading North, and we must immediately send men that way to start negotiations. King Harald, you will be needed there. So I will lend you some of my Guards to fortify the border to the south, giving you time to go North.”

  King Harald nodded, looking a bit surprised at suddenly being given the company of the purple-eyes he’d tried so hard to get. “I will make preparations immediately.” He stood and left, leaving his cousin looking a bit lost.

  Father sighed, then left the table to stand in front of her. “Hi. My name is Harrodon.” He held out his hand for her.

  She took it. “Toka.”

  “Shall we…sit?” Harrodon asked.

  It was odd seeing Father so insecure, and Elakdon didn’t like it. He didn’t like that someone had also volunteered to go live with humans, harem or not, so he turned to look at the blue-eye. “What’s your name?”

  “Frode Mekla Bjørkson.”

  “A Changeling. Do you miss humans? Is that why you go?”

  “No, I go because I would feel less lost than a born son.”

  Elakdon smiled. “I will empower you before you go.”

  “Thank you, Nol.”

  It was all falling into place, and Elakdon would soon see his entire new Kingdom change and take shape into what he’d just helped derive at. And it scared the crap out of him.

  He’d managed to cut through and place his demands, and neither the old King nor the Queen had stepped in, meaning they approved.

  He felt sick to his stomach, yet he also felt victorious. Nausea was still there. At least until he turned around and found Randr there—quiet, stoic, and patiently waiting.

  Elakdon felt peace spread inside of him.

  He had time, and he had a plan. Most importantly of all, he had found the peace he needed to center him when it all got to be too much. That ugly man standing in the middle of a room full of beautiful people.

  Elakdon’s heart skipped a beat when Randr’s gaze cut to Elakdon’s and then smiled.

  He felt less of a failure and found the strength for hope. With that man by his side, the plans he made for his people’s future would come through. With a man that strong by his side, failure could never even be an option.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Elakdon looked at Randr, the pleasant temperatures of Nol-Beaudon’s backyard a sharp contrast to the winter chill of the evening he’d agreed to hide his people. Elakdon held up his hand, the ugly man who’d won his heart raising his own to place it against Elakdon’s. For a moment, they were back on that field a thousand years ago, their ghost-like touches sending a thrill through Elakdon’s body, making his heart soar. “I still love you.”

  Randr smiled. “My King.”

  Now they all knew. He wondered if anyone had ever noticed the way Randr say it. He wondered if anyone had noticed how deep their love went since Randr always hid. A green-eye being able to hide from purple-eyes, and a Changeling over a thousand years old. That power alone should have revealed to all how much he lived on Elakdon’s doses.

&nb
sp; Emotions ran high in Elakdon as he stared into his lover’s eye. He raised his other hand and touched the scar on the side of his face, the man’s silence so comforting. There was never anyone else to hold his heart or to make the world stand still.

  Randr’s silence kept centering Elakdon, and everything would fade away except for the sound of the fire crackling and a knife whittling away chips from a piece of wood. The dose spilled from his lips, and Randr pulled Elakdon in, swaddling him up in a tight embrace, while Elakdon felt warmth emanate from his core.

  Time was irrelevant, yet Elakdon became mindful of the fact that they’d just made love in front of everybody and especially the young Prince, Beaudon. So he reluctantly peeled himself away from Randr and turned his head to glance at Beaudon. The young Prince had a secretive smile on his face as he looked too focused on the flames.

  “The next time all the Royals are gathered, look at Nol-Plydon. Look at where he constantly glances to. He is one of the few who sees Randr. And he will dip his head in respect now whenever he sees him because as old as he is, as pessimistic as he has become, a love lasting over a thousand years is beyond his understanding. I even fear that love is.”

  Beaudon looked at Elakdon. He looked touched by the story. Or maybe only the ending.

  “I hope my story gave you valuable insight.”

  “Oh, it did. On so many levels.” Beaudon smiled at Randr. “But the mentality then is so different from what I can even understand.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like…Randr, how did you forgive Elakdon for burying your friend with his face in his own ass?”

  Randr snorted. “I didn’t forgive him that. I acknowledged that Knud had ultimately degraded himself enough to deserve it.”

  Beaudon looked surprised at that.

  “It was difficult at first. Time put distance on it, and I was able to see more objectively my own hand in it. We can inspire people to a degree, and that is it. They ultimately do what they think is right. Sometimes, we are the ones wrong, other times, they are. I no longer feel like a failure for not being able to inspire honor in him. He lacked the foundation while it cost me my eye yet earned me the respect of a King and the love of an incredible man.”